Mercier, Pascal: Night Train to Lisbon

A middle-aged teacher of Latin and Greek suddenly leaves Bern and travels to Lisbon as a result of picking up an old book inPortuguese, a language he does not know. In Lisbon, he investigates the life   the dead author and meets with members of his family and friends before finally returning to Bern (though there is one brief return soon after his initial arrival, This is a beautifully written book (again, praise to the translater) in which not a lot happens either in the present day or in the relating
of the life of the dead author some decades earlier. The writings and the teacher's reactions to them in which he questions his own life provide the novel's impetus providing a slow, thoughtful, read.

Vargas, Fred: This Night's Foul Work

The ghost of a nun, butchered stags, disturbed graves, a brilliant pathologist and a new member of Adamsberg's squad who
is looking for revenge are only some of the elements of this brilliant thriller. How they come together with the rest of the
story is gradually and suspensefully laid out by a writer who must surely now rank among the very best crime writers of the
present day. Not only is there are tortuous plot which is resolved only at the end but also a depth of characterisation that is so often taken for granted in crime novels. The various elements reveal a considerable depth of, presumably, researched
knowledge of a great variety of subjects: while some of this could be omitted it does enhance rather than embellish.